Giving items and equipment to NPCs and mobs

[jettoki]

Right now, when you give an NPC an item, he will immediately give it back unless it pertains to one of his quests.

Expected: In classic, you could give any item or piece of equipment to an NPC and they would take it from you.

If you gave them a piece of equipment that they could use, they would immediately equip it. As a result, you'd see the Priest of Discord and various NPCs wearing bronze armor, wielding unwanted weapons, etc.

Any item that you gave an NPC was gone forever. Handing the wrong NPC a quest item meant you'd never see it again.

[Haynar]

Right now, when you give an NPC an item, he will immediately give it back unless it pertains to one of his quests.

Expected: In classic, you could give any item or piece of equipment to an NPC and they would take it from you.

If you gave them a piece of equipment that they could use, they would immediately equip it. As a result, you'd see the Priest of Discord and various NPCs wearing bronze armor, wielding unwanted weapons, etc.

Any item that you gave an NPC was gone forever. Handing the wrong NPC a quest item meant you'd never see it again.

This often resulted in a /petition, and a customer service request. Which used time and resources. Often items were not given back, but sometimes they were. Especially if they were rare epic related items.

You can pretend you did this, by randomly destroying an item in your inventory once a week. If you really need to get that part of the "classic" feel again.

Haynar

[Malrubius]

I actually agree with the OP in this case. I understand that it caused a lot of heartbreak, but it was very memorable and gave the game a lot more realism too, imo...

-Wow, that guard is holding a Stein - lol.

-Damn, I just gave the #$@^@!# my Dark Reaver - better get some friends together to kill him and try to get it back.

-etc.

In fact, dropping something on the GROUND would often cause a wandering mob to pick it up and say "ooh, that's nice" or something similar. Halflings in RV come to mind...the little theives. Not sure if that still happens here, but I think it should.

Not a showstopper though, that's for damn sure.

[jettoki]

This often resulted in a /petition, and a customer service request. Which used time and resources. Often items were not given back, but sometimes they were. Especially if they were rare epic related items.

You can pretend you did this, by randomly destroying an item in your inventory once a week. If you really need to get that part of the "classic" feel again.

Haynar

I'm aware that this behavior has a significant customer service cost. I'm only filing it as a potential issue, because it's not classic.

Equipping NPCs with weapons and cosmetic armor used to be very common, so as a feature, it has some value. Whether it warrants attention is not my call to make.

[doacleric]

The ability for NPC's to give back unwanted items are build into the quest themselves. For us to remove that feature, we would have to go through EVERY SINGLE quest NPC throughout the entire game and manually remove the ability. I honestly think our time can be better spent fixing other issues...

[mgellan]

Any item that you gave an NPC was gone forever. Handing the wrong NPC a quest item meant you'd never see it again.

It was handy for getting rid of copper!!

Regards,
Mg

[Hasbinbad]

How about just making the PoD take stuff you give him and equip it? :D

I miss the PoD in full bronze!!

[Zanti]

I miss the little mini events higher levels would put on in lowbie dungeons by randomly handing some mob a decent weapon or something.

Also most items were not lost when you gave them to a mob, i used to hand frogloks in seb a ton of foraged junk while they were mezzed to get some laughs when group mates would go "wtf is with the roots and berries?" :).

[Rogean]

Actually, for the mobs that don't have a script file, they inherit a default script file that will hand items back by default. We could remove this easily and affect most of the npc's in the game. But like Haynar said, this would introduce another thing we would have to deal with on the customer service side that we are currently not prepared for personnel wise as well as mechanically.

[guineapig]

I don't know man.

When quests are broken and the NPC that's supposed to get the item eats it, I have never gotten my plat or quest items back, not once.... even after a petition or 3.

So no, I don't support the OP's request.

[jettoki]

Actually, for the mobs that don't have a script file, they inherit a default script file that will hand items back by default. We could remove this easily and affect most of the npc's in the game. But like Haynar said, this would introduce another thing we would have to deal with on the customer service side that we are currently not prepared for personnel wise as well as mechanically.

Totally understand. I filed this bug more out of curiosity than anything. It would be cool if we could dress up the PoD, though. :)

[Yinaltin]

i want to give fine steel weapons to newbie mobs again !

[Uaellaen]

i want to hand them mod rods ... love it when noobs wonder what the effect does ... *BINNNG* loading please wait ...

[isdnelson]

I see this general topic as an important issue in the light that...

1) If the game creates too many headaches for the developers of this project (which they make little or no money on), they are more likely to quit and spend their time on other things.

2) Rigidly adhering to game flaws, bugs, inefficiencies, or other headaches for the sake of being classic is a flawed line of thinking.

The beauty of this project for both players and developers is that there is room for learning from past mistakes and getting Classic EQ right, not just "classic". Blatantly adhering to flaws is not a healthy or desirable trait... period.

[Bumamgar]

Exactly :)

That said, I do have fond memories of folks holding in-game events that revolved around giving stuff to NPCs in a newbie zone and holding a treasure-hunt or just having newbies get nice surprises when they loot a stat item from a bat...

Of course, the potential for griefing is high enough that it's probably best to leave this 'feature' out of p1999.

[Tallenn]

I actually disagree with the OP. Some things that were classic are better left in the recesses of our collective memories.

This would not "enhance" my experience in any way, shape, or form.

[Kraftwerk]

I would love to be able to give items to newbie mobs. Its so much fun to sit in WFP and drop a good item on a bat and see a newbie /shout for joy at his newly found treasure. It enhances game experience for me, but is understandable if it's too much work to do.